Todd’s Serial Blog

DOC SAVAGE: A COLUMBIA SERIAL IN 15 CHAPTERS

Producer: Larry Darmour

Director: James W. Horne

Photography: James S. Brown, Jr.

Script: Basil Dickey

George H. Plympton

Wyndham Gittens

Music: Lee Zahler

Cast:

Doc Savage: Larry “Buster” Crabbe

Pat Savage: Iris Meredith

Tarnack: James Craven

Natalia: Veda Ann Borg

Renny: Roy Barcroft

Ham: Tristram Coffin

Monk: Charles King

Long Tom: Guy Wilkerson

Johnny: William Bakewell

Brown: Ray Teal

Taylor: Al Ferguson

Butch: Jack Ingram

Karl: George Magrill

Wheeler: Dick Botiller

Meeks: Kit Guard

Lyle: Lester Dorr

DA Warwick: Forbes Murray

Inspector Nolan: Robert Fiske

Judge Watkins: Selmer Jackson

Tuka: Al Kikume

Narrator: Knox Manning

Recap: “Doc Savage, fearless Champion of Justice, has returned from the North Pole to discover that Tarnack is using his Sonic Vibrator Gun to rob banks. Creating a Sonic Vibrator Gun detector, Doc and his Fabulous Five track them to another robbery!”

CHAPTER 8: HERO ON TRIAL

Doc and the Fab Five surprise Tarnack’s men in the middle of emptying a bank vault. A fight breaks out with Doc and his men getting the better of the scared gangsters. Suddenly Tarnack appears out of the shadows with one of Doc’s dart guns. He expertly shoots Doc and his five friends.

The sight of his enemies helpless causes Tarnack to gloat until he sees that the Sonic Vibrator Gun was damaged in the fight. He starts to berate his men for their stupidity, but then stops when he hears a police siren approaching in the distance. Tarnack gets a crafty look on his face, sets the Sonic Vibrator Gun to explode, then hurriedly leaves with his men and the loot.

Doc and his men suddenly jump to their feet. Quickly seeing that the gun is about to self destruct, Doc gets his friends into the vault and pulls the door closed after them. The machine starts emitting a loud whine that builds and builds until it explodes in a huge shower of sparks.

Doc pushes the door back open and they climb out of the vault, Monk commenting that it’s a good thing Doc had them all immunized against their own dart guns. Just then Inspector Nolan arrives and demands to know what is going on. As Doc tries to explain, Nolan immediately latches onto the concept that the gun causing the robberies belongs to Doc and promptly arrests him. He is about to arrest the Fab Five as well, but Doc says they were all innocent bystanders and had nothing to do with the robberies. Ham immediately steps forward as Doc’s attorney and goes with him to the police station.

News of Doc’s arrest is broadcast. Tarnack and his men hear it over the radio. Tarnack has a nice chuckle of the irony of Doc being tried for the crimes he and his men have been committing. Natalia voices concern about Doc getting off, after all Ham is the shrewdest criminal attorney in the country. Tarnack scoffs at her concerns and plans to have a good seat at the trial.

The trial opens with a scathing indictment of Doc from D.A. Warwick, who paints a nasty picture of Doc and his exploits. During the course of the trial Ham expertly dismantles the D.A.’s case, and after bringing to light that the money stolen from the bank was not on Doc or any of the men with him at the bank, Doc is found not guilty. Judge Watkins releases Doc, a free man.

Natalia leans over to Tarnack and whispers that she told him so. Tarnack whispers back to shut up, he has a back up plan put in place just in case this happened. Doc and his friends are leaving the courthouse all smiles, congratulating both Doc and Ham. A man on a roof top aims a rifle at Doc and shoots. Doc grabs his chest and collapses on the ground.

“Can the Fabulous Five carry on alone? Why is Pat fixing Natalia’s hair? All pretty girls do have to look their best after all. Be sure to see THE PIT OF DOOM, Chapter 9 of DOC SAVAGE at this theater next week!”

Tags: Fiction //